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With Colorado legislative session a third over, most Longmont-area legislators' bills are still alive

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
02/16/2013 09:31:11 PM MST

Updated:
02/16/2013 09:39:31 PM MST

House members gather in their Chamber at the Capitol in Denver on Friday, Feb. 15, for a long, emotional debate about guns and bills dealing with them (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
(
Ed Andrieski
)

State Rep. Jonathan Singer

DENVER -- State Rep. Jonathan Singer appears on track to better the legislative batting average he posted in 2012.

By the time the Colorado General Assembly concluded its 2012 session -- Longmont Democrat Singer's first -- one of his bills had been signed into law, but three others failed their first committee tests in what was then a Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

This year, with Democrats having captured a majority of House seats in last fall's elections, Singer has already gained initial committee approvals for three of the four bills he's introduced in the Legislature's 2013 session. Singer's fourth measure also is still alive but hasn't yet been heard in committee.

Two of those four Singer bills reprise proposed laws he unsuccessfully pushed last year. One, which awaits House Appropriations Committee consideration, would allow 16- and 17-year-old Coloradans to pre-register to vote in elections that occur after they reach age 18. The other, which awaits a House Business, Labor, Economic and Workforce Development Committee hearing, would crack down on "wage theft" by employers who refuse to pay the previously agreed-upon wages or other compensation a worker has earned.

2013 regular session

People can find and read the bills once they're introduced by state lawmakers, can track the status and any changes made to those measures as they're considered, and can check calendars telling when bills are scheduled to be heard in committee, by going online to the Colorado General Assembly's home page, leg.state.co.us, and clicking "2013 Regular Session."

(AP Photo/)

State Rep. Mike Foote

Singer said in a Saturday interview that he's optimistic about the eventual outcomes of his proposals this year -- and about the overall package of legislation that'll emerge by the time the 2013 session ends -- but that he's learned that "it's important to take the time to be thoughtful" about the bills he's introducing and his votes on other lawmakers' proposals.

"I've got a real responsibility to make sure that whatever I'm trying to put into law isn't just a good idea, but that it works," Singer said.

He said that he hasn't made up his mind about how he'll vote, for example, on some of the gun bills sponsored by fellow Democrats, measures that produced nearly 12 hours of debate on Friday.

"I'm still weighing some of the gun issues in my own head," Singer said, adding that he's continuing to do his homework on the points raised by proponents and opponents of some of those bills.

Singer said his taking the time to make those decisions "gives a lot of people on both sides of the aisle a lot of heartburn."

The change in the Colorado House's partisan mix may also prove beneficial for the lawmaking efforts of freshman state Rep. Mike Foote, D-Lafayette.

State Sen. Matt Jones
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Greg Lindstrom
)

Foote already has gotten a House committee's approval and, this past Thursday, a 37-27 vote in the full House, for one of the four bills he's introduced this year, with 35 Democrats and two Republicans voting for it, 26 Republicans and one Democrat voting against it, and one Democrat absent. That measure, which next will be considered by a Senate committee, would specify that a firearm is legally considered a deadly weapon if it's possessed during the commission of a crime, regardless of whether it's discharged or whether the perpetrator actually intended to shoot anyone.

State Rep. Lori Saine
(
Jerry Long
)

Today is the 40th calendar day of the four-month-long 2012 legislative session that began on Jan. 9 and must conclude on or before May 8. So far, lawmakers have formally put forth more than 500 bills proposing new state laws or the repeal or revision of existing laws. Fifty-two of those bills have been introduced by the 12 legislators whose districts represent parts of Boulder, southwest Weld, southern Larimer or Broomfield counties.

A bill's chances of becoming law may be boosted if the sponsor is a Democrat -- the political party that holds 20 of the 35 state Senate seats, as well as 37 of the 65 House seats -- but the sponsor's party affiliation doesn't always predict a bill's fate. A bill bearing too high a budgetary price tag -- or one that's particularly radical or politically ideological or that prompts strong lobbying pressure from groups with stakes in its outcome -- can go down to defeat regardless of whether the sponsor is a majority-party Democrat or a minority-party Republican.

Six of the 52 thus-far-introduced bills from area lawmakers have already died during the first third of the 2013 session. All had Republican sponsors -- two bills from Berthoud-area Sen. Kevin Lundberg, two from Dacono Rep. Lori Saine and two from Fort Collins-area Sen. Vicki Marble.

A House Transportation Committee vote killed a Saine bill that would have allowed the county commissioners in Weld, Boulder, Larimer counties -- and the city and county of Broomfield -- to exclude parts of their counties from the metropolitan area's mandatory motor-vehicle emissions testing program, as long as those areas don't violate national ambient air quality standards for carbon monoxide or ozone.

Saine, a former Dacono city councilwoman, said Saturday that her legislative experience "has been very cordial" so far but that she'd been "hoping that a couple more of my bills would have seen daylight."

Said Saine: "I didn't think it would be so party-line." She said the bills measures passing with bipartisan support "seem to be what I call 'pH neutral.'"

Killed in a Senate Education Committee vote was a Marble bill that would have allowed public school employees to join or quit membership in a labor union at any time, without any restrictions from the school district or labor organization.

Still alive -- but facing uncertain fates in committees -- are three other Saine bills and three Marble bills, as well as three from one of their fellow first-year Republican lawmakers, Rep. Perry Buck of Windsor. And while veteran legislator Lundberg has had two of his bills rejected in Senate committee votes, he also collected unanimous Senate floor votes to advance two of his other proposed laws to consideration in the House.

One of Lundberg's two bills still progressing toward potential passage would remove a requirement from existing law that now makes motorists use their turn signals when they're in a traffic roundabout.

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